The process of forming semi-conductor wafers or other delicate electronic components into useful articles requires high levels of precision and cleanliness. As these articles become increasingly complex and miniaturized, contamination concerns grow. Contamination problems are reduced by providing controlled fabrication environments known as “clean rooms”. Such clean rooms are protected from chemical and particulate contamination to the extent technically and economically feasible.
While clean rooms substantially remove most contaminants found in ambient air, it is often not possible or advisable to completely process components in the same clean room environment. Moreover, not all contamination and contaminants are eliminated. For that and other reasons, delicate electronic components are transported, stored, and fabricated in bulk using protective carriers. Examples of specialized carriers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,439,984; 6,428,729; 6,039,186; 6,010,008; 5,485,094; 5,944,194; 4,815,601; 5,482,161; 6,070,730; 5,711,427; 5,642,813; and 3,926,305, all assigned to the owner of the present invention, and all of which are hereby fully incorporated herein by reference. For the purposes of the present application, the term “carrier” includes, but is not limited to: semiconductor wafer carriers such as H-bar wafer carriers, Front Opening Unified Pods (FOUPs), and Standard Mechanical Interface Pods (SMIFs); reticle carriers; and other carriers used in the micro-electronic industry for storing, transporting, fabricating, and generally holding small electronic components such as hard drive disks and other miscellaneous mechanical devices.
Contamination and contaminants can be generated in many different ways. For example, particulates can be generated mechanically by wafers as they are inserted into and removed from wafer carriers, and as doors are attached and removed from the carriers, or they can be generated chemically in reaction to different processing fluids. Contamination can also be the result of out-gassing on the carrier itself, biological in nature due to human activity, or even the result of improper or incomplete washing of the carrier. Contamination can also occur on the exterior of a carrier as it is transported from station to station during processing.
Process contaminants and contamination may be reduced by periodically washing and/or cleaning carriers. Typically, a carrier is cleaned of contaminants and contamination by placing it in a cleaning apparatus, which subjects the exterior and interior surfaces to a flood or spray of cleaning fluids. After the washing step, a considerable amount of fluid may remain on the carrier. This residual fluid is typically dried with a stream of dry gas or by centrifugal spinning.
Carriers often have intricate arrangements of surfaces that are difficult to dry. In addition, a residual amount of the cleaning fluid may adhere to the surfaces of a carrier as a film or in a multiplicity of small droplets after the washing step. Any contaminants suspended in the residual cleaning fluid may be redeposited on the surface as the fluid dries, leading to contaminant carryover when the carrier is reused. Consequently, process efficiency and effectiveness is diminished overall.
What is still needed in the industry is a carrier with features that promote more effective cleaning and drying of the carrier with reduced levels of residual process contamination.